PENN 4, HARVARD 3

After jumping out to a 3-0 team lead, the Crimson looked to have the match against the Quakers in the bag.

But four-straight singles wins by Penn gave Harvard its first Ivy Season loss on Saturday.

“Against Penn, they surprised us a little bit,” Gridley said. “I think we were a little bit too comfortable.”

The day began well for the Crimson. Gridley and Jania teamed up at the No. 3 doubles spot to defeat Penn’s Stephanie Do and Emma Whitfield, 8-2.

At the No. 1 position, Tachibana and freshman Kelly Whelan dropped their bout, 8-4, putting all eyes on the No. 2 court.

In the closest doubles match of the afternoon, Norton and Morrill stuck out an 8-6 victory to give the Crimson the doubles point after their opponents came back from a three-game deficit to tie the match at six.

In singles, Jania and Blosser eased passed their foes at the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively.

Jania was the first to finish with a 6-1, 6-0 win over the Quakers’ Alex Ion, while Blosser finished close behind with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Daniela DePaoli.

With four more singles matches remaining, Harvard only needed one individual victory to preserve its undefeated Ivy League record.

The first two Crimson losses came at the No. 1 and No. 5 courts. Sol Eskenazi of Penn took down Tachibana at the first spot, 6-2, 6-4, while Srinidhi Raghavan defeated Gridley at the No. 5 position, 6-4, 6-2.

Courts two and six went into three sets. At No. 6, Morrill won the first, 3-6, before losing the ensuing two, 6-4, 6-3.

With the score knotted at three, the deciding match came down to Norton at the No. 2 position.

Norton lost the first set, 6-2, but came back to tie the match at 1-1 after winning the second, 7-5. She was in the lead in the third set, 6-5, when her opponent brought the battle to a stalemate at six.

In the third-set tiebreak, Norton was unable to hold on, falling, 7-4, resulting in the Crimson’s first conference loss.

—Staff writer Taryn I. Kurcz can be reached at tkurcz13@college.harvard.edu.